Background: I went to pick my car up today after getting the T2R installed. The shop owner drove it maybe five to eight miles this a.m. to make sure the gears sounded okay. It started up and ran fine for him. I got there, paid him, grabbed the keys and walked to the car. Nothing. No interior lights and it wouldn't even turn over. (Car has the original battery from 1999. I was going to replace it this summer.)

So we attempted to charge the battery with a plug-in charger. The lights came on and everything worked for a few seconds, while the charger was attached. Then it started acting funny, drawing huge amounts of current for a second or two, then switching back to charging normally. So we stopped that (quickly) and got a new battery. We installed that and everything came on and the car started right up--it idled sluggishly at first, which it has never done before, but it was fine after a few seconds.

Everything appears to be fine, now, but the headlights. They won't turn on. The foglights and dash lights work fine. The owners manual says the headlights are "protected by a circuit breaker" but it doesn't say how to find the breaker. Does anyone know where it is?

Thanks in advance!

-John

Sounds like you may have a shorted cell in the old battery.

And, the computer was "reset" by the battery swap, and that may explain the sluggish start after the swap.

Thanks Kevin. The old battery is now history. Good to know I probably didn't do any permanent damage! If anyone knows where this mythical circuit breaker is, please do tell...

Thanks,

-John

was thinking crank positioning sensor initially... but seems like trackbird is on the $.

If the battery was left off long enough then all of the learned parameters in the PCM have been reset. I did a hard reset on my PCM a few weeks ago and it idled very rough for a little while at start-up until the idle air control motor relearned and cracked the throttle open a hair.

Sorry have no idea where the breaker is or even that there is one.

Exactly....like you think it's going to die, then it catches itself. Not sure about the circuit breaker. Check all your fuses and relays if you haven't already. I would also check your headlight switch/dimmer.

Thanks guys for your advice. The car seems fine now, except for the headlights not working. There definitely is a breaker in the circuit with the headlight switch, though. The diagrams I have in my Haynes manual confirm it. There's also a fusable link on that circuit. So it's one or the other or both.

But the owners' manual says that if there's a power surge (which is what appeared to happpen) it'll trip the breaker, so it makes sense to try that first. I still have no idea how to find it, though. Could it be part of or near the headlight switch, since it's on the same basic circuit, according to Haynes?

Thanks,

-John

Have you checked the fusebox in the dash? Its on the side of the dash and its covered by the door when you close it. I'm pretty sure thats where the headlight breaker is on my car.

You need to check 2 things, Fuse #5 in fuse panel and the Fuseable link, its foward of the left wheelhouse, behind underhood electrical center 2. They have fuseable link Z and E, Black color going to red. Form there it goes right into the Headlight switch.

You might want to take out the headlamp switch and check for power coming in.

Hope this helps. John

Jason,

I did have a look at that. (All the fuses checked out.) But I'll take a closer look. It would be great if that's where the breaker was.

On edit, checked this and fuse number 5--all working fine.

-John

I was looking at the wiring diagram when posting that. Shoot me a fax number and I will fax it to you. My information wont let me cut and past.

John,

PM sent. Thanks!

-John

Well, thanks to John's help, I fixed my headlamps. The headlight switch that mounts to the left of the steering wheel was bad. ($50 from the local dealer.)

But the car seems to still have electrical gremlins. When I key the motor on, it sometimes resets the guages if the car's been sitting for more than a few minutes. So the trip odometer resets itself. The engine light came on for a bit today, then went back off after I stopped for gas.

I am going to try to pull the codes. I have an ODBII port connector, but I have to get a serial port-to-USB converter, since none of the laptops I have have a serial port. (The downside of "legacy free" PCs, I guess.)

Ugh. Any suggestions on this one?

-John

I can't remember if its the BCM or the PCM that controls that stuff; I think it's the BCM. I'm not sure but there might be a BCM BAT fuse (I don't have a wiring diagram in front of me). If it's not recalling data, then it seems like a bad module or some blown fuse powering the module to store the values like milage in memory. If you can stay away from the Belkin (SP?) USB to Serial adapters and find one made by Keyspan. I've heard of countless problems with people using Belkin adapters.

Have you done a complete PCM reset?

Glad to hear you got the headlights figured out. As for the gauge cluster, there was a TSB for the problem you're describing. The odometer's actually stored in the gauge cluster and they had problems with the trip meter resetting at times - the solution is to replace the gauge cluster or ignore the trip meter.

Obssd,

Indeed there is. Nice recall and thanks...



I was concerned that the PCM might also be resetting itself. But it seems like that's not the case.

Phil,

I don't believe I've done a complete PCM reset, unless removing the battery does that. (I assumed that it did, but I know that I've seen articles detailing how to reset the PCM.)

Thanks for the advice on the cables. I'm going to try to get one of them ASAP... Based on the CEL and the other phantom lights I've seen, something else may still be going on...

Huge help!

Thanks,

-John